Simple hold-to-zoom feature for Skyrim SE/AE

Overview • Features • Installation • Usage • Configuration • Compatibility • Building • License

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Overview

SkyZoom is a native SKSE plugin for Skyrim SE/AE. It drives worldFOV and firstPersonFOV directly, rather than touching the camera/scene-graph.

Features

• Smooth ease in/out (smoothstep, no jolt)
• Keyboard/mouse + gamepad (XInput) hotkeys, independent of each other
• Optional toggle mode (default: hold-to-zoom)
• Live zoom adjust via scroll wheel or a rebindable gamepad button
• Optional sensitivity compensation while zoomed
• Per-view toggle (first person / third person / both)
• Config via ini, or in-game MCM menu with SkyUI

Installation

1. Install SKSE and Address Library. Optionally SkyUI for the MCM menu.
2. Copy SkyZoom.dll and SkyZoom.ini into Data\SKSE\Plugins\.
3. For the MCM menu: also copy SkyZoom.esp into Data\ and Scripts/*.pex into Data\Scripts\, then enable SkyZoom.esp.
4. Launch via skse64_loader.exe.

Usage

Hold the hotkey (default: Mouse Button 4 / D-Pad Left) to zoom in; release to ease back out. With ToggleMode on, press again instead of releasing.

Configuration

With SkyUI: MCM menu → SkyZoom, applied instantly. Without it, edit SkyZoom.ini and restart.

Key	Default	Description
Hotkey	5	Hold-to-zoom key (5 = M4)
GamepadButton	4	XInput hold-to-zoom button (0 disables)
ToggleMode	0	Toggle instead of hold
ZoomFOV	60.0	FOV while zoomed
SmoothSpeed	8.0	Ease speed (higher = snappier)
EnableScrollZoomAdjust	1	Live-adjust zoom via wheel/boost button
MinZoomFOV	20.0	Tightest FOV reachable while adjusting
ScrollUsesSmoothSpeed	0	Use SmoothSpeed timing for scroll-zoom ease
LiveZoomBoostButton	128	Gamepad button for live zoom boost (0 disables)
DisableTriggerWhenSheathed	0	Free an LT/RT GamepadButton from block while sheathed
ViewMode	2	0=1st person, 1=3rd person, 2=both
RequireWeaponSheathed	1	Only zoom outside ready/fighting stance
AllowZoomDuringDialogue	0	Allow zoom during dialogue even if readied
ScaleMouseSensitivity	1	Reduce look sensitivity while zoomed
SensitivityExponent	2.5	Aggressiveness of sensitivity cut

Compatibility

See patch/README.md for compatibility patches.

Building

Requirements: XMake 3.0.0+, C++23 compiler (MSVC or Clang-CL)

git submodule update --init --recursive
xmake build SkyZoom

MCM Menu

dist/SkyZoom.esp is prebuilt and checked in. Only scripts/source/*.psc needs recompiling on change, via PapyrusCompiler.exe (Creation Kit).

Requirements:

• The base game's Papyrus source, under <Skyrim install>\Data\Scripts\Source\Source\Scripts. The Creation Kit drops it as <Skyrim install>\Data\Scripts.zip without extracting it - unzip it yourself, and put its Source\Scripts\ folder at Source\Source\Scripts above. Needed even to resolve Quest, the root of SKI_ConfigBase's own extends chain.
• The SkyUI SDK, for SKI_ConfigBase.psc source - SkyZoom_MCM.psc extends it, and the compiler needs source, not SkyUI's shipped .pex.

$compiler = "<Skyrim install>\Papyrus Compiler\PapyrusCompiler.exe"
$baseSource = "<Skyrim install>\Data\Scripts\Source\Source\Scripts"
$imports = "$baseSource;<SkyUI SDK>\Scripts\Source;scripts\source"
$flags = "$baseSource\TESV_Papyrus_Flags.flg"

& $compiler scripts\source\SkyZoom_Native.psc -i="$imports" -f="$flags" -o=build\papyrus_output
& $compiler scripts\source\SkyZoom_MCM.psc -i="$imports" -f="$flags" -o=build\papyrus_output

Ship the resulting Scripts/*.pex alongside the DLL and SkyZoom.esp.

Project Structure

├── src/
│   ├── PCH.h                    Precompiled header (CommonLibSSE-NG + STL)
│   ├── Plugin.cpp                SKSE entry point (SKSEPluginLoad) + log init
│   ├── Config.h / .cpp           SkyZoom.ini load / save / defaults
│   ├── Hooks.h / .cpp            D3D11 swapchain Present hook install
│   ├── Input.h / .cpp            Keyboard + mouse + XInput hotkey polling
│   ├── FOVController.h / .cpp    Per-frame FOV transition + worldFOV write
│   ├── CompatAPI.h / .cpp        Exported zoom-weight query for compat patch
│   └── Papyrus.h / .cpp          Native function bridge for the MCM menu
├── scripts/source/
│   ├── SkyZoom_Native.psc        Papyrus declarations for the native bridge
│   └── SkyZoom_MCM.psc           MCM menu (extends SkyUI's SKI_ConfigBase)
├── dist/
│   ├── SkyZoom.ini                Default config, shipped alongside the DLL
│   └── SkyZoom.esp                Quest hosting the MCM menu (see below)
├── patch/README.md               Compatibility patch index - code for each
│                                  one lives on its own `patch/<name>` branch
└── lib/commonlibsse-ng/          CommonLibSSE-NG (git submodule)

License

This project is under the GNU General Public License v3.0.